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THE AGE OF IVORY 



The Age of Ivory 



Henry Harmon Chamberlin 




Boston: RicharcTCj. B^dgef' 
The Gorham Press 

1904 



» » , ■ , • ' . - 




Copyright 1903 by Henry Harmon Chamberlin. 
All Rights Reserved. 



THE LIBRARY QT 

CONGRESS, 
Two GoHdB Received 

NOV 23 !9»8 
DLM3€iXfat:o. 






Printed by 
The G or ham Press 
Boston, U. S. A. 



TO E. W. W. 



CONTENTS 




Proem ...... 


5 


The Last Fight of Sir OHphant 


7 


The Covenant of Labor . 


12 


The Elephant's Nightmare 


16 


To My Lady When She Snores 


28 


The Bridal 


30 


The Burial 


33 


The Fruition 


38 






41 Vien dietro a me, e lascia dire le genti ; 
Sta come torre, fermo, che non crolla 
Giammai la cima per soffiar de' venti." 

Pur gator io, V. 33-35. 



PROEM 

A world I sing, unvexed of barbarous races, 
A world where elephants o'er plains and seas 

Rule undisturbed nor heed the brisk grimaces 
And frantic babblement of chimpanzees, 

Baboons and gibbons. These for all their blatter 

Beguile not Evolution with their chatter 

But play their pranks amid the tops of trees. 

The wisdom of the tusked domination 

Holds up to shame the apery of mankind, 

The malice and deceit and tribulation, 

The tongue that wags and clacks, the vacant 
mind. 

Spirit occult ! what ailment can have moved thee 

To give a race malign, that feared nor loved thee, 
Thy power on earth to loosen or to bind ? 

Irremeable hour of mammoth tears 

When elephants were turned out to browse 

The prey to their inferiors' darts and spears ! 
Yet I the drowsing centuries can arouse, 

Revoke the past and view the calm, drab legions. 

Victors of aeons, who tread broad, fruitful regions 
Of tasselled grass 'twixt house and lofty house. 

O gracious rule that never yet hath been 
And never is and never more shall be ! 

O blameless race with noses serpentine, 
And thy front teeth, twin swords of ivory ! 

Thine empire down a vista of clear rhyme 

Beyond fortuities of space and time 
It is the poet's privilege to see. 



THE LAST FIGHT OF SIR OLIPHANT 

Sir Oliphant paced the grassy lea 

With ears yspread toward westering sun ; 
With twirling trunk and small, mild ee, 

He mused o'er battles his tusks had won : 

u There's no more need for trump nor drum ; 

Banners and pennons can eke be furled ; 
Bound is the Dinotherium, 

The last of all the giant world ! 

" We fought the fight and conquered peace ; 

No living creature braves our word ; 
Rapine and carnage all shall cease 

For the tusked tribe is overlord ! 

64 Tigers and apes by myriads slain 

Who vainly tried our march to bar . . . 

But O for the whelming charge again ! 
The crimson joy of the jungle war ! " 

Sir Oliphant moved upon the lea ; 

To and fro his bulk did sway ; 
He chewed a leaf of plantain tree 

And watched the dying of the day ; 

And as he chewed the plantain leaf, 
Out of the woods a laborer came ; 

And on his brow sat shame and grief, 

And from his lips hung grief and shame. 

" Now fast and far this carle hath come, 
So tell thy tale and waste no word." 

4< O the great, black Dinotherium ! 

Sair news ! sair news ! my warrior lord ! 



" His roar is the roar of an angry sea, 

Enormous tusks grow out of his chin ! 

He razed my barn and granary ; 

He threshed my corn and broke my bin ! " 

Out of the woods another ran ; 

All one side was clottered blood. 
" Now stay ! now stay, my gentleman ! 

We '11 wash thy wounds and do thee good ! " 

u Avenge, avenge me my abuse ! 

The Dinotherium ramps nearby ! 
At the cliff baths he broke out loose 

Where blithe we bathed, my friend and I ! 

" His trunk was like an iron flail ! 

It churned the water to foam and froth ! 
The marks I bear from ear to tail ! 

My friend bides still within the bath ! " 

" Now stay thy step and still thy moans. 

Sir Oliphant thy tale hath heard ..." 
Out of the woods came cries and groans ; 

Out of the woods there ran a third. 

u What ho, fair stripling, like the spring 
With tender trunk and budding tusk ! " 

u O curse the hour of love-making ! 
Bitter the fruit and hard the husk. 

" O curse the hour that tempted me 
To meet my love in yonder grove ; 

And there beneath the tamarisk tree 
The Dinotherium reft my love ! " 

The cries and groans grew nigher and nigher, 
Then faded faint on the evening gale. 



Sir Oliphant, he called his squire 

All for his arms and coat of mail. 

He donned no visored morion 

Because his nose was all too long ; 

No fiery steed he mounted on, 

No back to bear him was sae strong. 

The burnished bronze encased his heart, 
It cased his cunning trunk three ply ; 

His trunk enwound a bamboo dart, 

And he chased the far receding cry. 

The trees of the wood or palm or bay, 
They crashed before him to and fro ; 

And down the wake of the open way 

His armor gleamed in the afterglow. 

And all night long the foe he followed 

O'er stump and bramble and marsh and mire, 

Lit by the trees that age had hollowed 
Or else by fitful marish fire. 

But as the cries and groans he traced 

Through darkly whispering forests far, 

'Mid wind-swept branches interlaced 

Once and again there gleamed a star ; 

And still the cries and sobs grew loud ; 

And louder waxed voracious roars 
Like minatory thunder cloud 

Or waves on imminent, unseen shores. 

The darkness had begun to lift ; 

The sobs died down and then they ceased ; 
The dawn peered dim through many a rift, 

And still, and still the roars increased. 



So to the ghostly forest edge 

Sir Oliphant came at early morn ; 

And there beneath a beetling ledge 

The Dinotherium wound his horn. 

And there, with frantic, pleading trunk 

A light-gray maiden all forlorn 
Upon the barren earth down sunk. . . 

And the Dinotherium wound his horn. 

He blew no bugle nor trump of brass 

Nor clarion shrill nor big trombone ; 

But the noise his nose and throat did pass 
Would terrorize a heart of stone. 

Swifter than greyhound or antelope, 

Or gray goose arrow from tough, yew bow, 

Sir Oliphant unto the maid did lope, 
To stand between her and the foe. 

Uprose the Dinotherium 

As men might view a mountain rise ; 
His trunk was tipped with a monstrous thumb 

And the fire of Hell shone out of his eyes. 

With heavy, flat foot and double-spiked jowl 

He weened to whelm and pierce the knight. 

Beneath his chin, cowl upon cowl, 

Rounded his throat sae wide and white. 

And where the throat vein was most wide 
And the skin was soft to every smart 

Sir Oliphant, swerving swift aside, 

With nervy trunk drove home a dart. 

The black blood gurgled and spurted there ; 

The roar stopped short with gasp and choke ; 

10 



The chin tusks clawed the empty air ; 

The great bulk keeled like a stricken oak. 

But woe betide the dew-drenched rock 
Sir Oliphant's foot must slip along ; 

And O the fearful fall and shock ! 

No back to bear it was sae strong. 

On the barren ground they made one heap, 
Both he who lost and he who won ; 

The last, long vigil there to keep 

For the morning sun to shine upon. 

The light-gray maid full sore did weep ; 

Sir Oliphant oped a glazing ee : 
" O dig the grave both wide and deep 

For me and for mine enemy ! 

" There's no more need of trump nor drum ; 

Banners and pennons can eke be furled. 
Gone is the Dinotherium, 

The last of all the giant world ! 

u We fought the fight and conquered peace ; 

No living creature braves our word. 
Wars and rumors of wars shall cease 

For the tusked tribe is overlord ! 

" Glory at morn . . . the foe lies slain . . . 

My soul is ebbing fast and far . . . 
The crimson joy is mine again 

And deep, dim peace from strife and war." 



11 



THE COVENANT OF LABOR 

THE LEADER 

Ye tusked lords of all the earth and lords of mam- 
moth peace, 

I bless you at your bulky mirth ; I bid your tribe 
increase. 

And yet bethink you, life is more than grass and 
grain to eat, 

Than daisied meads to gambol o'er and trample 
with your feet. 

Be worthy of your empery ; no longer careless 
browse. 

Work, work for your posterity and cease to dream 
and drowse. 

THE TUSKERS 

Master beloved, we 're roused and moved to live 

laborious days ; 
Thine to contrive and ours to strive our children 

to upraise. 

THE LEADER 

O ye to whom the woodland fruits and every 

cereal sown, 
To whom the tart and tonic roots and luscious 

leaves are known ! 
Put forth your trunks to cultivate all prairies and 

plateaux 
In plots that each an hundred-weight of grass and 

grain shall grow ; 
And on broad meads alluvial whereby sweet 

waters run 
Set amaranth and asphodel to ripen in the sun. 

12 



THE TUSKERS 

O the good brown earth shall flourish forth in 

comely fruits and flowers. 
Drab hides with sweat shall glisten wet thro' all 

the daylight hours. 
Each ductile nose a garden hose, a trowel and a 

flail, 
At dewy eve the task we leave, weary from trunk 

to tail. 

THE LEADER 

O ye that roam the mountains 'round while crags 

and boulders crack, 
Whose footfalls make the caves resound and groan 

their echoes back ! 
Seek in those hills where veins of ore and quarries 

do abound 
And multifarious treasure store upheave from 

underground. 
Then join the slabs with builders' art and weld the 

metals rare, 
And pillared manors, miles apart, shall make the 

earth more fair. 

THE TUSKERS 

'T was all absurd for herd on herd to browse o'er 

plain on plain. 
Their greed and haste left waste on waste, not 

arable again. 
More thrift and care when mated pair shall own 

each wide demesne, 
And houses stand o'er all the land with bosky 

woods between. 



13 



THE LEADER 

O ye the woods who penetrate prehensile apes 
to chase, 

The gibbon to annihilate, the bluenose to deface, 

Build ye the ways like adamant and smooth as 
alabaster ; 

The goods of earth they ne'er shall want who trans- 
portation master ; 

And friend with friend shall joy partake right 
readily, I ween, 

Though miles on miles of cane and brake and 
pampas intervene. 

THE TUSKERS 

So, firm and flat in layer and mat of gravel, dirt 
and shard 

We '11 build the ways and spend our days in mak- 
ing of them hard. 

Our feet shall pound each layer of ground compact 
as any wall ; 

To grade the whole we '11 ponderous roll our tor- 
soes over all. 

THE LEADER 

My people, ye have answered me, sagacious tusked 

lords ! 
Colossal aim I here proclaim and trumpet forth 

your words ; 
And work shall be your high estate, and daily toil 

and stress, 
Whereby the womb of Time grows great with 

others' happiness. 



14 



Slaves of the hours ye will to be and provident of 

soul, 
Ye make your children glad and free and destiny 

control. 

THE TUSKERS 

Master, vile ease we leave behind, content to fol- 
low you ; 

The words from your proboscis wind so beautiful 
and true. 

To set our sons preeminent, we '11 delve in every 
soil 

Though trunks be stiff and backs be bent and 
knees be gnarled with toil ; 

Like fragrant myrrh and cassia balm, the labor of 
our days 

Whereby our children bear the palm, the paeon 
and the praise. 



15 



THE ELEPHANT'S NIGHTMARE 

Sir Gormand dwelt in days before 

The tusked lords decreed 
No living creature e'er might serve 

Them for their belly need ; 
But all must plow the furrowed ground 

Or forage for their feed. 

Wherefore he dined, one August eve, 
On cheer glad gods might eat ; 

On pheasant wings, gorilla chops, 
On eggs of condor fleet, 

On tongues of birds of paradise, 
Turtles and tapirs' feet. 

Flagons of musty peanut ale 

With zest he did absorb ; 
With nectarine and apricot 

He stretched his ventral orb ; 
Then laid him on his teakwood couch 

With pendant carved and corb. 

A proper place, that lofty couch 

For tusked lords' repose ! 
Ten times beneath an April sun 

Melted the winter snows 
While the deft artist wrought it out 

With patient, mobile nose. 

Four Bengal tigers propped the bulk, 

With ivory claws unfurled, 
Their forefeet braced against the floor, 

Their hinder legs upcurled, 
With mouths of porphyry, eyes of beryl, 

And whiskers stiff impearled. 

16 



Between, in carven curvature, 

Four monkey bridges hung. 
With chattering teeth and rumpled fur 

In the air they swarmed and swung ; 
And curly toes and tendril tails 

Reached out and clutched and clung. 

Benignant from the headboard gazed 

An elephantine head, 
With tabular, capacious ears 

Like angel wings outspread, 
Whence lotus 'broidered olive silk 

Draped down about the bed. 

Portent of calm and happy dreams ; 

But o'er the foot malign 
Crouched a baboon, a mandril huge ; 

Beneath his brows did shine 
Twin carbuncles, a dread to all 

Incontinent who dine. 

With poppy and mandragora 

That couch was wreathed and wound, 
The frail, white flowers of Sleep and Death 

That blossom underground 
In the valley of dreams, by Lethe brink, 

With drowsy memories crowned. 

But poppy nor mandragora, 

Nor the lotus flower that grows 

In far off isles and maketh men 
Forget their cares and woes 

Could give Sir Gormand pleasant dreams, 
* Nor dreamless, deep repose. 



17 



I 



He sate within a palm forest, 

Close watched by tigers four. 

Beneath two banyans shone the moon 
As through an open door ; 

The dreary, uneasy breezes teemed 
With stifled, wild uproar. 

And round about from tree to tree 
The monkey bridges hung ; 

And 'gainst the rondure of the moon 
Swart cocoanuts were flung ; 

And howlers made unholy glee 
The feathery leaves among. 

The spider monkeys leapt and whirled 

And tendril tails enlaced ; 
With somersault and Catherine wheel 

Their carnival they graced, 
And sooty mangabes thumbed the nose 

And menaced and grimaced. 

The pard and libbard howled their dread 
Through bayou and lagoon, 

While tens of thousands came and came 
And gibbered 'neath the moon 

And weaved between the banyan trunks 
In agitate festoon. 

Those trees of unimagined eld 

Groaned with their loathly fruit 

Whose lively clusters overgrew 
Their every leaf and shoot, 

Screening the sky between their trunks 
From summit unto root. 



18 



So darkness came upon the knight, 

Darkness and mortal fear. 
Over him crawled stealthy feet 

And clenched his neck bone near ; 
The mandril glared with eyes of flame 

And breathed upon his ear. 

Sir Gormand quivered in the wrath 
That nightmare frequent brings ; 

But his limbs w r ere as the unthawed earth 
On frosty morrowings ; 

And the mandril wrung his tender ears 
With nails like hornet's stings. 

Then silence ; then the dark was rent 
With screech and whoop and yell 

Full of fierce triumph, wild despair, 
Like laughter deep in Hell ; 

And back to either banyan tree 
The unravelling curtain fell. 

The moon was gone and ebon space, 

Intolerably near, 
Teemed with dim sights he could not see, 

Dim sounds he could not hear, 
Grim woes and desolations dire . . . 

And the mandril tweaked his ear. 

He saw an horde of curtail apes 

Forsake a grove of trees ; 
They roamed o'er opal mountain peaks, 

They roamed by wine-dark seas ; 
Their hair grew sparse, their pelts grew pink, 

And straight their crooked knees. 



19 



Alack, though changed to outward view, 
No fairer waxed each part ; 

Fain would they clothe deformity, 
But vain was all their art 

Who could not hide the monkey mind 
Nor hide the monkey heart. 

Another tweak . . . The tigers four 
Growled as with crash and jar 

Of apish armies flamed the night 
Incarnadine afar ; 

The blood-red flower of agony 
When Anarchy and War 

Triumph volcanic . . . He who slept 
Once more was put to pain . . . 

Beneath the sapphire dome of noon 
Girt 'round with ripening grain 

And murmuring streams, a little town 
Embosomed on a plain 

Dozed ; and the conic, earthern huts 

Baked in the torrid sun. 
From squalid door to squalid door 

The baby apes did run. 
Their breed had never a tail to pull ; 

Yet found they other fun 

Viewing the abasement of their sires ; 

For on a plaited mat, 
Beneath a blown catalpa tree 

A big gorilla sat, 
On the white milk of cocoanuts 

And idleness grown fat. 



20 



Prone on the paunch before him lay 

The sires, all skin and bones ; 
They brought him mead and wine and oil, 

And plumes and polished stones, 
And prayed to kiss his regal toes 

In whining monotones. 

He rose from off the plaited mat, 

Shapeless and swart and slow. 
He spurned the sires and trampled them 

Down in the dust below ; 
And the baby apes played peek-a-boo, 

Unmindful of that woe. 

Then the heavens were sealed with clouds of 
perse, 

And Horror set his seal 
On master and slave ; in mockery 

Crashed thunder, peal on peal. 
A quick and livid flame the tree 

Where bondsmen wont to kneel 

Struck ; blasted black the waxen flowers 
And stripped the white stem bare 

And seared the mat of plaited grass ; 
The big gorilla there 

Dropped with the rest and grovelling lay 
Dowered with the gift of prayer. 

Then from the peeled wood they made 

An image stark and high, 
Gorilla-faced ; and all bowed down 

Before that effigy, 
Fearing the heavy wrath of God 

Who thunders in the sky. 



21 



While thick and fast they swarmed and swarmed 

About their simian god, 
The big gorilla slowly uprose ; 

With callous feet he trod ; 
Nor longer feared the thing they feared. 

He lordly stalked abroad 

Over the prostrate multitude 

With seasoned club on high ; 
And right and left he struck, and stern 

He watched the stricken die, 
His people and his servitors ; 

And when he drew anigh 

The idol, both his palms he raised 

And from his lips outwent 
These words : " My power on earth is given 

By Thee, Omnipotent, 
To be a terror to my folk 

And for their government.' 1 

Before the carven block he swayed 

As one deep drunk with wine : 
u God of the storm, all praise to Thee ! 

Thy power on earth is mine ! 
Thine be the blood of sacrifice, 

Since by thy will divine 

"I rule ! " and they in the dust groaned back : 
" He rules ! " and there and then 

Hypocrisy, whose paths are dark 
Beyond archangels' ken, 

Crept into every mind and heart ; 

And the apes were turned to men. 



22 



Upstarted many a starved baboon 
'Mid the transformed crowd. 

44 Lies ! lies ! w their gaunt and grisly jaws 
Vociferated loud, 

44 Down with the liar who smites and slays, 
The pitiless and proud ! " 

Then hundreds rallied round their chief, 

Heavy and stout like him. 
Hibernian-lipped, they gripped and tore 

Dismembering limb from limb. 
Vermilion grew the sacred ground 

Before the idol grim ; 

And red with gore grew each clenched first, 

And red with rage each eye. 
They crashed in charge and counter charge, 

With call and counter cry. 
44 For God and king ! for God and law ! " 

44 For life and liberty!" 

Ages on ages, fanged with steel 

Passed onward from that fight. 

Unending legions wheeled and charged 
In armour shining bright. 

Like phosphor on the ravening waves 
They crumbled 'gainst the night. 

And the great aeon sunk in blood 

O'er Time's unresting sea 
Whose waves were faces, tempest-tossed 

In hope and agony ; 
Whose salt was the salt of human tears ; 

Whose depths were mystery. . . 



23 



The waves were dashed to white, white foam 
Before Sir Gormand's eyes. . . 

Again the mandril tweaked his ear. . . 
Again the dreams did rise 

By other shores, on other plains, 
And under other skies. 

The tigers yawned with snarling jaws 
And crouched and took their ease. 

The time was come whereof 'tis writ 
Wars and their rumors cease ; 

He saw the great millenium 
Of Industry and Peace, 

A land of millwheels ; round and round 
They whirled the livelong day. 

Slow, sullen rivers, serpentine, 
The refuse bore away. 

Tall chimneys vented smoke and fire 
Against dull skies of gray. 

That land with apes diminutive 

Was peopled and possessed. 
The big gorilla and all his brood 

Had gone to lasting rest, 
And sooty mangabes bore the rule 

Who brotherhood professed 

Unto briaerian multitudes. 

The welfare of the state 
Concerned them not ; they, practical, 

In place and power elate 
Strutted their hour and cocked an eye 

And thumbed the nose at Fate. 



24 



With variegated trick and wile 
They got their gear and pelf ; 

And what they could not eat and drink 
They laid upon the shelf 

Or gave away in charity 

For love of God and self. 

Their cups were crowned with ruby wine 
And hours of pampered pleasure. 

The feet of the night were jocund fleet 
In bacchanalian measure ; 

And Duty called them at the dawn 
To get more earthly treasure. 

Hungering millions, day and night, 

Danced to a wilder strain, 
Footed it still for pence and bread, 

Capered and hopped in vain, 
Each against all, with narrow brows, 

Scarred with the mark of Cain. 

O great Millenium ! Monkey Peace ! 

Worse than the crash and jar 
Of foughten field ! O trebly worse 

Than all the ruin of war 
When Greed sits in the counting-house, 

Not in the battle car ! 

Then all those millions stayed their feet 
And glared Sir Gormand o'er 

With canine grin intolerable ; 
And lofty palms once more 

O'ershadowed him, and murmuring swelled 
To endless, wild uproar, 



25 



Lauding that age o'er ages past, 

Since electricity 
And steam could take their idlest thoughts 

And them from sea to sea 
Fleeter than dreams to gain their goal, 

Perfected apery. . . 

The mandril smote Sir Gormand's brow 
And smote and smote again, 

And gave a yell demoniac 

More hateful than the pain, 

Like wolves that howl on wintry dawns 
Over the newly slain. 

The dreamer's limbs played puppetwise 

Like palsied oaks ; his head 
Shook and the dril careened away 

And crouched above the bed 
Carbuncle-eyed . . . and he raised his trunk 

Aloft and trumpeted. . . 



Through pomp of marble architrave 
That trumpeting was borne 

As when, behind the rock of dole, 
Sounded Orlando's horn. 

Sir Gormand oped a troubled eye 
In the glimmer of early morn. 

His ears were taut and bellied out 
Like sails in a hurricane ; 

His bosom heaved like seismic hills, 
The sweat poured down like rain, 

For the shadow of a figment woe 
Afflicted heart and brain : 



26 



As music lingereth plaintively 
After the song hath died. 

He rose and near a lattice leaned ; 
The genial harvest tide 

He viewed 'mid parian tracery 
Acanthine ; far and wide 

They trolled the song of the rising sun, 
A youthful, tusked band, 

And swayed in rhythmic majesty, 
Those tillers of the land ; 

Nor want nor violence nor greed 
Did any understand. 

'Mid the ripe grain for shade at noon 

Rustled a grove of trees. 
'Gainst the pale sky a chattering ape 

Swung blithe from one of these, 
Innocuous impertinence 

Upon the morning breeze. 



27 



TO MY LADY WHEN SHE SNORES 

A SERENADE 

Rest thee well, my lady fair, 

For thy trunk attunes thy slumbers, 
For the bulbul notes thy numbers, 

Silent on the lattice there ; 

And a single passion flower 

Blooms upon the night senescent ; 
And the moon, a candid crescent, 

Shines upon thy jasper tower. 

O the music of thy nose ! 

Low reverberations, twining 
From the soft and tender lining 

Pinky tipped like budding rose, 

Breathing repetendoes o'er 

While the wooly bats are dancing, 
Now retreating now advancing, 

To thy modulated snore. 

O beloved, unaware 

Of the tusk of sharp love longing ! 

Loud the sounds of sleep are thronging 
Elephantine on the air. 
Deep would grow thy blush of gray 

If a dream within thy bosom 

Opening like an orange blossom, 
Told thee all I dare not say ! 



28 



Lo ! thy nose, an elfin horn 

Wakeneth echoes o'er the mountains, 

Wakeneth rainbows on the fountains 
At the opal birth of morn. 
Lo ! upon the passion flower 

All the dews of love are gleaming. 

Only thou art still a-dreaming, 
Dreaming in thy jasper tower. 



29 



THE BRIDAL 

Over the orient hills went he and she 
Adown a road of marble by the sea, 

Her light gray bulk against his darker gray. 
On glimmering shores a golden fane afar 
Under the trembling matutinal star 

Wooed them to wed upon the break of day. 

Their brows and tusks the myrtle did entwine, 
And orange flowers and twisted eglantine 

And either heart was ringed with living flame ; 
Their vows they breathed as brave and pure and free 
As wayward winds upon a sunlit sea 

Who knew not wanton wile nor maiden shame. 

Down cypress aisles they wandered, undismayed ; 
The roadway changed to porphyry and jade, 

Darkling beneath dim skies of promised morn. 
'Mid tameless carolings of birds, apeep 
To wake Aurora, clear and loud and deep 

They heard the winding of an aureate horn. 

They won the open ; there the golden fane 
Dashed back the coming sunbeams o'er the main ; 

They stayed their steps ; bright eyes bespoke 
their bliss. 
With spiral trunks upcurled, with lip to lip 
Throbbing triangular, did either sip 

The fervor of the last prenuptial kiss. 

Like God's own head above that sacred shore, 
Above the breakers' foam and crash and roar, 

The sun uprose ; then from the temple nigh 
Was trumpeted o'er crag and promontory 
The matin hymn to hymeneal glory 

'Neath the pavilion of the morning sky. 

30 



Between the temple and the cypress grove 

They stood one moment, hushed, alone with Love ; 

Then passed the portico ; within the closes 
Ten priests, mild-eyed, white as the driven snow 
In violet vestment edged with gold below, 

Swayed to the solemn anthem of their noses. 

Forth came the great high priest before them all 
In consecrated robes purpureal ; 

His ears adorned with amaranth and moly. 
Biped he stood and cygnet in its grace 
Uparched the frontal arm upon his face, 

While he pronounced his benediction holy. 

" O youth and maiden, fresh with morning dew ! 
Like earth and air your love shall be to you, 

Irised with hope, forever to abide." 
There was no need of troth and wedding ring, 
Question, reply and ritual bargaining, 

As these the crystal altar stood beside. 

The choric trumpets sounded joy to them ; 
The brows of both with emerald anadem 

Were quick begirt ; then did the high priest 
reach 
Forward with supple trunk and readily 
Knotted their noses tight as tight could be, 

In true love mesh close coiled each on each. 

With clear, swift fire not eagle's eye could bear 
The crystal altar was effulgent there, 

A million burning hues ; and there above 
'Mid showering clouds of odorous nard and myrrh 
With vibrant voice the god's high minister 

Told unto youth and maid the lore of Love. 



31 



The lore of Love ! to you, the simian born, 
A scandal and a byword and a scorn, 

Filed with your precepts, O insatiate ! 
To these within the temple by the sea 
A prayer, a glory and an ecstasy, 

Sane with a nobler hope, a happier fate. 

Then from the splendor of those mysteries 
The twain went forth into the morning breeze, 

While in their ears the anthem did resound 
And insects joyous piped in winged bands. 
Their feet made impress on the brown sea sands ; 

Their trunks fell free, but still their hearts were 
bound. 

Thus by the radiant ocean did they go 
Till the far music, rapturously low 

Lulled to a rest ; anear a basalt cave 
They halted like twin hills, where seaweed hung 
Deep carmine from cool rocks and slowly swung, 

And o'er the threshold broke each crested wave. 

And there . . . but these their transports who can 

tell 
To men, that with their sin familiar dwell, 

Where Aspiration is an appetite? 
Men who create their image from the dust 
Even as a deed of shame, in stealth and lust 

Cloaked with the decency of eyeless night? 

These did no sin nor stood on modesty, 
That mammoth pair ; beneath no shamed sky 

Between the rising and the falling tide, 
Distinct unto the candor of the day, 
Rapt in the joy that cannot pass away, 

Their final innocence they sanctified. 

32 



THE BURIAL 



PRELUDE 



Three days before had Death come unto him 
Fleet-footed on the noon, when diamond light 
Danced on the waters . . . but his hundred years 
All, all extinguished, and the light of life 
No more shone in his eyes, only the gleam 
Upon his tusk of ivory. Then the wife 
Embalmed his limbs in cassia and in myrrh 
Mingled with wakeful tears. Then the four sons 
Out from the couch and chamber carried him 
To the Temple of Death, far hidden in deep vales 
Where sunbeams came like vagrant guests. Him 

there 
They laid beneath an alabaster dome 
On catafalque of agate opaline, 
Where all the hues of the world waxed dim and 

faint, 
Translucent like the dawn over still seas. 
And at the appointed hour on the third day, 
White-hooded mourners gathered in the vale 
And 'mid their gentle weeping, strewed they 
The azure flowers of flax upon the bier, 
Mourning his beauty and his bravery 
And the unpremeditated words and deeds 
Of kindliness o'er past and long ago 
Forgot till grief restored the memory. 

So, silent, passed they to their homes and fields; 
But lone beside the bier the wife outpoured 
Her love for him, vanished forevermore ; 
Love that survived in yearning and in pain ; 
Love that must live when all most loved was gone. 



THRENODY 

Gone, gone forever, lord of all my life ! 

Dust to the dust, thou gentle and benign ! 
O what is left for me, thy wedded wife? 

O weariness of days to weep and pine ! 
O weariness of night to wake uncertain, 
Hearing the wind still whisper through the curtain, 

For my lone grief there is no anodyne ! 

O like unto the mountain and the plain, 

Decorous and immutable as they ! 
Upon thy tusk the spiral gold was fain 

Seven times the decade of thy wedding day 
To show ; nor that the mutual love was sterile 
The seven lucent stones of fruitful beryl 

That diadem wise upon thy forehead lay. 

Without thee and within thee all was true 
Like to the rooted virtue of the palm. 

No agony to meet and to subdue, 

No evil passion for the heart's alarm ! 

O now thy mammoth soul is overpast, 

Strong as the redwood tree against the blast, 
More sweet than alpine breath of meliot balm ! 

Now is the soul of all things gone from me 

With thy departure ! Now the cries and tears, 

The bitterness of weeping ! Nov/ shall be 
Death to the soul through all the dying years ! 

The symbols of the happiness we borrow 

To light the dawning of a distant morrow 
Each but as nothing is not but appears. 

Now nevermore for me, ah, nevermore 
The trembling music of thy lover's sigh ! 

The gleaned pasture we would linger o'er 
Together, trunk to trunk and eye to eye, 
34 



The sweet intoxication of existence 
Banished to irremediable distance, 

Since even the holiest love must pass and die . 

Noblest and holiest die and pass away : 
The rainbow glimmer over violet seas 

Doth pale into the pitiless light of day ; 
And then comes night eternal over these, 

Night, universal mother sempeternal 

Of all the blossomed hopes that still be vernal, 
Heartaches, disasters and vain hours of ease ! 

There is no life beyond the open grave, 

Flowered and grassed forever for us twain. 

From blind and icy Death we vainly crave 
Always to live as on the earth again. 

Yet still I know thou hast been and the sight 

Of thee once made my life more fair and bright 
Than summer roses after summer rain. 

I look upon this earth with other eyes 

Now that I know thy love was once for me. 

Foreboding like a scourged demon flies 
And lifts the veil of Night's immensity ; 

And down the abyss of ever-present sorrow 

A livelier hope shall come with every morrow 
Than when in maidenhood I knew not thee. 

Because the loves and watchful agonies 
Moulded the apprehension of my soul, 

Because an aspiration never dies, 

Because in death thy love shall be my goal, 

Because the domed skies and billowed ocean 

And changeful stars all with a holier motion 
About me evermore shall turn and roll ; 



35 



Because at fragrant eve, on marble stairs 

Where bloom the umbrageous aloe and almond 
tree 
Through arabesque of lattice unawares 

A whisper of thy love shall come to me ; 
Because thy spirit stirs my inmost being 
And blinds mine eyes with tears that give me see- 
ing 
And turns my heart to truth continually ; 

Because our passed vows are consecrate 
An hope foregone hath come again to me ; 

Come to dispel the bitterness of Fate 

With fragrance of a happy memory . . . 

My heart beguiles me that thou art immortal ; 

Thy soul a greater splendor at Day's portal, 
Thy voice a deeper music on the sea . . . 

A splendor and a music I shall join 

To thee espoused as here upon this earth ; 

Though all unconscious that we thus combine 
Nor mindful of the past at second birth ; 

But each to each fulfilment and a joy 

Even as long years ago when, girl and boy, 
My heart encountered thine in childish mirth. 

The pagent of eternity and time 

Unto our mammoth hearts but half unrolled ; 
The mystery of the ages half sublime 

And half demoniac and all untold ; 
What we both are and what we cannot know, 
Now, now \feel like to the morning glow 

That doth the frosty flowers touch and unfold. 



36 



I dwell within the shadow of thy death ; 

I live my life in doubt, but patiently 
Though weary are the days of mortal breath 

Sundered forever from the sight of thee. 
Sundered and yet united, I abide 
Till the long splendor of the morningtide 

When all is lost in Love's immensity. 



37 



THE FRUITION 

That solemn conclave where the tusked lords 
With signet and with seal, the bliss affirmed 
For future generations, elephant, 
Aid me to tell, O mammoth muse ! Thou erst 
Of human rhyme disdainful ! Thou who dwelst 
Afar with fulgent tusks of ivory 
Sweeping the strings of a tremendous lyre 
On peaks exalt beyond the sun, by streams 
Cadent in sheer cascade, who drinks whereof 
Scorns Helicon. Turn thou thy lotus eye 
On these my labors, and the song is done, 
High deeds commemorate and turned to song. 

The hall was basalt with wide vaulted roof 
Whence chrysolites the sunbeams from above 
Transmuted to dim grandeur, and whose walls 
Shone sombre as within a secret room 
On moonless nights a mirror doth diffuse 
The light of stars unnumbered and eterne. 
On silver thrones unburnished sate the lords 
Colossal, like to Memnon who awaits 
Egyptian dawn, where 'mid the throng of gray 
Out spoke the Priest of Love, with snow-white 

brow 
Domed abode of Wisdom and of Zeal : 

44 Ye regnant powers of Earth! five hundred 

vears 

•i 

Are vanished since from mother's womb I woke 

Unto the rainbow's promise and the cries 

Of creatures love subdued ; and I have seen 

Changes innumerable as patterned leaves 

In immemorial forests ; mortal wars 

With monster hordes of ravage and revenge, 



88 



Mimosa sheltered meadows, desecrate 
As with an avalanche, things frail and fair 
Ravished and crushed, hyenas' festival. 
Then from a crimson ruin shone Victory 
And Peace, effulgent with an inner light 
Like far-off mountains 'neath a northern sky. 
Wherefore to Thee, O Lord of stellar hosts, 
I pray for benediction, Love supreme ! 
Thy tusk shall rend the impious and thy nose 
Upraiseth Justice like a beacon flame ; 
Thou send'st the worlds a-whirling as a youth 
Dallies with crystal spheres, his trained trunk 
In joyance rotate ; Thee supernal wise 
Not doubting, yet I pray." He bowed his head ; 
And all the assembly nodded from their thrones 
Exultant homage, venerable trunks 
Sweeping the pavement, while the rooms without 
Resounded glad with cymbals and with shawms ; 
Music to God most high. Olympian calm 
Succeeded, undulant with whispering, 
As when the cedars of proud Lebanon 
Brood o'er the passing zephyrs with the thrill 
Of movement half allayed, and marmosets 
With elvish eyes quick peering through the leaves, 
Alone affront the silence. Solemn, slow, 
Like monolith that brawny multitudes 
Upraise at Karnak or by Ganges stream, 
Enormous towered the Prince of Harvestry, 
In roseate vestment with the bearded grain 
'Broidered in gold, and words in wholesome store 
Dropped from imperial lips : "Peers elephant ! 
Your mammoth hearts are burst with thankfulness 
Even as our garners ; wide alluvial fields 
Gird the horizon which the brackish sea 
Doth keep forever green, distilled to dew. 

39 



We cannot gather all we grow from vales 

Thrice rich with aged mold, from fragrant closes 

Where flowers flaunt in variant arabesque 

Hyperion's pomp, nor yet from wilder woods 

Where prowl pied jaguars who the simian hordes 

Drive to the topmost boughs ; and the broad Earth 

Teems ; as the mother of a child new-born 

Feeleth the breast grow heavy with the milk 

And yearns to nourish and to be beloved. 

'Tis told long erst how Famine walked the world, 

Famine voracious, like a starved ape 

Beat by the winter winds ; he set his seal 

On every apish brow ; the idle dolts 

Wailed in his dungeons while the thrifty wise 

Hoarded from Destitution careful store. 

Then Pestilence and Death, anointed kings, 

Revelled and tyrannized on golden thrones, 

Blaspheming Reason ! In another world, 

Some vermin spawn may blunder to their woe 

As hogs in Transylvanian wilderness 

Root for the bitter acorn, emulous 

Each for the largest nut Another world ! 

To the utmost generation ours being free 
From bitter bale. I, joyful, bring my sheaf 
To lay before you, worthier than I 
To count the why and wherefore of the seed ; 
Secure whatever deliberation brings, 
Abundance is a truth." He sat him down 
Amid punctilious applause ; for none 
Even in gorgonian visions e'er could dream 
The tribulation and the toil of Man, 
Lost Eden and an Abel and a Cain. 

Then Phidian with mild eyes like tourmalines, 
Lord of the arts acclaimed : u How fond ! how 
vain ! 

40 



Your gravest words our bliss to justify ! 

Mine feebler yet ; for you have conquered Fate 

Whilst I but marked the issue, dreaming still, 

Dreaming away the summer afternoons 

'Neath jasmine bowers and lush magnolias 

By shady pools, unvexed with vagrant winds ; 

About me sun-burned youths and maidens quaff 

Empurpled wassail cooled with mountain snows ; 

They polish jasper and calcedony, 

Or carve in sworl and spiral intricate 

The blunted tusks of elders, work outworn. 

Shapers of aspirations, what are we 

Without your aid who gave the wine and oil ? 

We grace achievement with a coronal 

Nor deem the partial tribute wholly vain. 

I therefore, though a loiterer in your ways 

Bring counsel unabashed. Of old we cleared 

A mountain peak of adamantine snows, 

And hewed a symbol from the living stone. 

Over Hesperian meads of asphodel 

Lofty it looms, with trunk to zenith raised, 

Poised on exultant pinions. Underneath 

A dreadful shape the massy feet crush down, 

Leonine clawed but impotent to tear 

From breast and throat the pillared heels away . . . 

In face a woman, queenly beautiful, 

Save for the eyes in terror concentrate, 

The riddle of immortal agonies, 

Indomitable pride and lies obscene, 

Self-pity and self-scorn. The elephant 

Stands fast against the skyline and the coast, 

Aerial immensity. To him 

The busy breezes of the all-fruitful sea 

Bring breath of spice from laden argosies, 

41 



With music, tender as a requiem lay, 

Fraught with deep joy, with no false yearning 

marred. 
Him wanderers, pausing at their evensong 
Acclaim Equality the Conqueror ! 

O Tuskers, free and self omnipotent, 
Yet erring still anomalies among, 
Barbaric title, bravery long outworn, 
Tabled in laws, graven on mildewed bronze, 
Ages before the primal builders oped 
The caverned wombs of hills to conjure forth 
The topless towers of marble harmonies. 
Then warlords urged the elephantine race 
'Gainst Saurian foes deform ; and when those wars 
Dissolved in seas of blood like wintry suns, 
And Life was vernal with activities, 
Clear, gifted souls by carle and thane elect 
Over the laborers bore stringent rule, 
Whilst Hope and Aspiration led the way 
Unto their children in the aftertime. 
Unto an heritage of joy and peace 
From envy and care secure, the ashen fruit 
Of sordid strife from others' dearth to gain, 
Dark with no sensual dreams nor chance desires, 
No Friendship feigned that seeks as in a glass 
The likeness of the seeker in the friend, 
No tainted loves, unsavory to the hours, 
No Duty, mordant parasite of Lust 
And Force and Fraud, the Cerberus of the World ! 
A flaming heritage of joy and peace, 
Surge upon surge, canorous to the skies, 
Not to be borne by self-entrammeled souls, 
Quenchless, intense, and not to be consumed ! 
O bounteous carnival of peace and joy, 



42 



Blameless and beautiful in brotherhood ! 

Why should we bow a customary knee 

Unfit for bending ? Nobleman and thane 

Distinct by birth, not breeding, claim would lay 

Unto a prouder title, elephant. 

What matters now if one, his forebears dwelled 

In woodman's hasty bunk and charcoal burned, 

Whilst the other mustered cohorts in the field? 

And how should ye, my lords, your power put forth 

No laggards to coerce nor knaves, but those 

Who by a generous instinct know themselves, 

Nor fret nor fume competitive, but find 

Their proper intuitions undisturbed? 

Authority is now an empty husk, 

That grates and rattles in the idle wind 

As when a gorgeous poppy bursts the bud 

Letting the calyx wither on the stem ! 

Princes and potentates on silver seats, 

Vacant your laws and high prerogatives, 

Phantoms at best, and their originals 

But phantoms too, nor hold validity. 

Symbols of ancient suffering, long foredone, 

Be they abolished now forevermore ! " 

In silence, tanse as when a multitude 
Look forward to an issue or event 
Big with the fate of empery, and still 
Patiently wait a sign the gods may show, 
Flash of forked lightning or the flight of birds, 
And still await in vain, decrepit rose 
The Lord of Wisdom ; o'er him rolled the years 
More slow than centuries to lesser brains. 
Each month had left its mark on cheek and brow, 
And dulled the gleam of eyes once bright and keen 
As burnished steel, thrice tempered at the forge. 

43 



Though not in years, in learning venerable, 
He doubtful stood, revolving thoughts profound ; 
And when he spoke, his voice was like the sea, 
Muffled and hoarse, on ultimate, dim shores. 

64 Brethren, despite our titles and our laws, 
My heart in cloistral absence turns to you, 
Even as I ponder neath the cresset's glare 
On tomes of oriental charactry, 
Their long forgotten lore to saffron turned, 
Or blurred or half erased by careless Time. 
And memories of your friendships glad my heart 
What time, from azure dais, I wistful view 
Gray youths untusked and olive garlanded, 
For stern and sacred Science set apart, 
Eager to tread her labyrinthine ways 
That lead to Truth and Mystery. For me 
Austerity my portion, also mine 
The hope of nobler thoughts and nobler deeds 
Outsoaring all at present done or known, 
Wafted on intuitions of clear skies. 

Thus to your words I lift wide ears of joy ; 
Afresh the ichor pulses through my veins, 

compeers strong and brave ! Your eyes minute 
Are quick with forward hopes, and yet, and yet, 

1 fear that gleam may dazzle and beguile 
To prehistoric chaos ! This I fear. 
Bear with my foreign sadness, aged fears, 
Autumnal, sombre, chill as frost at dawn. 
I patience urge, alleviating balm 

That calms the wise and nerves to mighty deeds ; 
Your high prerogatives are empty husks ; 
So let them rot upon the parent stem 
Until a natural breeze shall waft away 
The poor, weak figment ; whoso premature 
Would pluck, might tear the integument and draw 

L.ef C. 



The vital sap. Yet why do I extol 
Anomalies who seek the Truth of Truth ? 
Because the Truth I seek, but never find ; 
Naught I deciphered on that faded scroll 
Save we must bow to universal laws 
We know not of ; for Nature blindly bends 
Unto her will our every fond design. 

Yet from her secret store we Happiness 
Have reft, and Pain is dead, the anarch Pain. 
Only when nerves are jangled out of tune 
Under the play of ecstasy too fierce 
To make the hours seem normal, tremulous 
We rail at inequality and law. 
Yet these attritions save us from ourselves 
And stir to goals else unattainable. 
Woe to the race that feels them not at all, 
Lapped in lethean languor, heavy eyed. 
Nay, even now amid the noblest youths 
Of our academy, methinks I see 
A perilous relaxation ; circlewise 
They sit upon the plots of careful turf 
And study for perfection, and they grow 
More subtle but less valiant ; they most quick 
To feel and suffer and achieve are fain 
To wallow in a mire of base repose ; 
And all the brighter colorings of their dreams 
Wax dim like misty moors at eventide. 
Triflers at study and at exercise, 
The generations pass whilst work and play 
In idleness die down and tepid flows 
The blood through languid veins ; or all too hot 
In indolence of bursting health, perforce 
More fiery frets in channels backward turned. 
O then the Fear and Famine, from broad fields 

45 



Neglected, and from orchards of rare fruit 

With brambles choked ! O then the grosser minds 

Try each to keep a little for his own 

In selfish garners, internecine war 

Where all is lost save a sad strength to bear 

And battle and subdue and find inane ! 

Where all the noble difference of clear spirits 

Is rubbed away like heap on heap of stones 

Alike, that make the refuse of the tide 

On some bleak isle, alone, mid wasting seas ! 

Then Pain, long dead, comes royal to his own 

In dreadful resurrection, and the race 

Bow done before him vanquished and fore done ; 

While Happiness of old that steadfast shone 

Prismatic mid the race, illuming each 

Unto perfection, 'neath that dynasty 

In some poor dwelling still an exile bides 

Pallid and wan by slowly dying fires ; 

But O ho w changed ! the furrowed cheek and brow, 

The hollow temples gaunt, the bloodless lips 

Curved in a patient smile that makes the heart 

Catch and the blood run cold ! This fear I still. 

And any bar to this processional 

I would retain, however slight and frail. 

Our laws and titles, now though empty grown, 

Keep them I pray, O potentates and peers 

If ye would keep our happiness supreme ! " 

So the voice ceased and silence took its place, 
Silence discordant, anger and regret 
Striving with courtesy ; for each great lord 
Baulked in dilemma, whether he should rise 
In passionate harangue or hold his peace 
Until debate should refutation bring 
Circuitous, mid the maze of many minds, 

46 



All hesitant save one ; the warlord, he 
Who ne'er had tested tusk in ravening war ; 
Peaceful, he drilled young athletes in the games 
That give to youth its glory ; he alone 
Sprang to his feet momentous ; fierce he stood, 
Storm swollen, like a massy thunder peak 
Against the welkin ; neath his gorget wide 
Insistent throbbed his throat, each separate vein 
Pulsing as valves a mighty engine stir 
With vicious hissing steam ; loud rumbled he 
With darkling frown ancestral for he felt 
The sacred rage of warriors and of kings. 
The laurel chaplet on his lofty brow 
Quivered ; the bulky breast 'neath polished mail 
Enamelled with the exploits of his race, 
Heaved like a quick volcano ; thrice he raised 
His trunk in rapid spiral ; thrice pealed forth 
The national alarum, for many a year, 
Unsounded, the alarum to mortal war 
Evil engendered hordes to overcome. 
The basalt walls reechoed at the sound 
Tremendous, while each fretted silver throne 
Shook to its base and every heart enorme 
Thrilled at the tumult, thrilled and thrilled again; 
As when old brazen bells, unused to toll 
Grow ware of noise resillient that the wind 
Bears to their lonely tower from battle fields 
Or some far distant city that proclaims 
Ovation to a monarch ; they though mute 
With tongue inert, are tingling thread on thread, 
Reverberant with a thousand memories. 
So the great powers gave ear unto his words 
That rang like iron mace on iron shield : 

u The venerable sage is blind with lore ; 

47 



His brain locked fast within itself, the key 
Lost, and the wards worn down and rusty turned ! 
Is this the royal robe of learning? this, 
Beneath whose folds and draperies, hid to view 
Delusion cowers, fond Error's fearful dream ? 
Let him awake and walk within the fields, ■ 
What time the jocund youths their matin song 
Upraise and brooding forests and old hills 
Glad echo back the strain ; he only views 
Their stricter meditations, when the blood 
Is quiet and concentric and the limbs 
Passive and stilled, mute vassals to the brain. 
But when December winds blow icy cold 
And snow doth blanch the ground and murky clouds 
The sun doth rift as with auroral swords, 
While maids from cedar shelves and sandalwood 
Fine linen take and velvet, broidered quaint 
Through years and years of toil when not one hour 
Was wasted on the whims of ugliness, 
But every garment is a paragon, 
Then to the North, these youths in troop on troop, 
Further than flesh could formerly endure, 
Through skeleton woods, o'er mountains, and o'er 

plains 
Onward and onward ever toward the pole ; 
By lonely crags abrupt where eagles nest 
And circle, screaming at a rock-bound world ; 
Where sable spruces brave the breath of Night 
And wolverines whine and hoots the great horned 

owl 
And all the air is dead and far at sea 
An ice floe moves, pale emerald 'neath the moon ! 
Still north with numbed trunks and thews that feel 
The burning hoar frost, while the weary eyes 

48 



Unvanquished gleam ; at last within a land 
Where half the year is twilight and the sun 
Skirts blear horizons, haply they give o'er 
The march near some crevasse that rives the base 
Of mountain on whose flank precipitate, 
Glacial imbedded, glares in fixed death 
That crested worm corrupts not nor fell Time, 
A form thick shagged, ten oxen could not stir, 
The mammoth, frozen in unlooked-for snows 
Primaeval. These the perils they entertain. 
Our sires, returned victorious from their wars, 
Would blench at , and Sir Wisdom thinks and fears, 
A craven in his twilight corridors. 
Knowledge and Fear are equals in his brain, 
Who teacheth Knowledge is the death of Fear. 
I would not flaunt him ; but his fear is born 
Of too much knowledge of vain subtilities, 
And not enough where heart goes out to heart ; 
There is no fear where excellence is known." 

Ending, he strode to where the middle floor, 
Cut in a bold intaglio, told the tale 
Of budding love twixt maid and bachelor, 
The first sweet dream. Here, static, he upraised 
His trunk in jubilation, and the cry 
Of victory resounded, like the strains 
Of dulcet symphonies, where horns and viols 
Thunderous accord maintain till choric din 
Purged of its grosser elements, is borne 
Upward in clarion call, like seraph joy 
In Heaven engendered at the birth of suns. 
And all the lords in awful unison 
Responded till the rooms and corridors 
Were vibrant with that ecstasy and wrath 
In plaintive diminution fled apace 

4!) 



Like driven scud adown Autumnal gales. 

And when that harmony was hushed, uprose 
The Priest of Love and all the air gave pause. 
The lamps of chrysolite with comelier glow 
Shone down while from an opposite recess 
Two neophytes paced forth ; no milkwhite fawn 
More lovely fair ; one, playful bore aloft 
A crystal thurible that slowly swung 
Whence every hue that Nature doth illume 
Irradiant gleamed ; his mate a censer bore, 
Fragrant with nard and myrrh and frankincense 
In costly flame , they glad in infancy 
Walked eager-eyed until the great high priest 
His station took between them, all the three 
Above the sculptured pavement, while their robes 
Shimmered and scintillated like the wings 
Of myriad mayflies on a summer noon. 
Then, so the story goes, full oft retold 
By aged grandsires, neath the echoing vault 
A presence, poised on wings of living flame 
Soared like an eagle, while the priestly voice 
Fell through the stillness, sweet as honeydew. 

" Both first and last, I hail the power of Love ; 
It is our comfort and our recompense, 
The ardor of the strife, the dust and sweat, 
The goal attained, the prize and laurel crown. 
All else is but a dream and emptiness, 
Dispelled in its bright beams ; 'tis Love informs 
The mind and heart to crafty labor trained ; 
And every self, refined and beautiful, 
The centre of a web of many dyes, 
Is but the filament that Love doth spin, 
Transient as cobwebs on the tasseled grass, 
What time the morning sun drinks up their dews, 

50 



Each drop an elfin rainbow; Love, the sun. 

Therefore I charge you, fear not anything 

Of passage and departure, or fell change ; 

Whilst Love abides between our altar fires, 

Still shall endure our temple consecrate, 

Whose walls are as of jasper and pure gold, 

Turrets of gold and every gate a pearl. 

We may not backward wend to darker ways, 

While this illumes to nobler thoughts and deeds; 

Quiet content may never perfect be, 

For still a larger perfect doth allure, 

Joy upon joy a ladder to the skies 

Even as our love grows larger with the use. 

Then let us banish care and doubt and fear 

And with these retardations, all the forms 

Of differing dignity and futile codes, 

Needless where none doth ill forevermore. 

And if in distant ages, dire eclipse 
Or cataclysm of the universe 
Shall whelm the blameless race in glacial storm 
Or scoriae upheaval, let it come ! 
Come what may come, this ardor shall not fail 
Amid the worlds that dom£d Night adorn 
With infinite million hopes, to mortal eyes 
Twinkling far off, yet each a mighty sun." 

The incense gave its fragrance to the air 
While the high priest his lofty seat resumed. 
Loud from the outer courts all instruments 
Throbbed in orchestral triumph, while the lords 
Gravely their code made null and all their laws 
And chartered titles ; whence alone should come 
Unto the race true order uncontrolled. 
Then from a hundred gates of aged bronze 
On strident hinges, issued fleet of foot 

51 



A thousand heralds, trumpeting afar 
The tidings glad to Ocean's farthest bourne. 
And all the tusked children of the Earth 
Rejoiced that government had passed away 
Leaving the rule to Virtue and to Love, 
Man's butt and scorn, their glory without end. 



52 



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